Tag: Preview

What is Alex up to? Sneak peek of exclusive prequel story

Hello Everyone!

I’m sitting here trying to stay warm on an unusually chilly weekend between LDOC (Last Day of Class; our campus was closed yesterday due to wintry weather) and exam week, and I thought I’d share another sneak peek of a bonus story for my Kickstarter prelaunch while I wait to see if we’ll get snow during my scheduled exam period on Monday morning. So far it’s looking likely. Thank goodness for Zoom.

But back to the Kickstarter. It’s for signed copies of any or all of the books in the Rowena Halley series, plus some things like the audiobook of Terminal Degree and some new bonus stories. It’s a pretty low-key, low-bling affair, but if you want personalized, hand-signed copies of any of the books (including ebooks–it’s now possible to personally sign ebooks!), or any of the bonus stories, this is the place to get them.

Speaking of bonus stories, I’m writing a series of very short stories as free prelaunch bonuses. To get them, all  you need to do is follow the prelaunch here.

The bonus stories stories are posted in the prelaunch updates. The first one is already up. The second one will be posted shortly, so if you follow the prelaunch now, you should get notified when it goes up. A preview is below:

***

Alex stared at the text for a moment. Then he saw the saw the time at the top of his phone, wrestled his car door open—really need to get that fixed. Maybe I’ll have enough saved up by winter break— and set off at a brisk jog. Didn’t want to be late for the first faculty meeting of the semester. Especially because he’d been sitting in his car texting his toxic ex-girlfriend. That shit was for teenagers, not war heroes—some fucking hero!—in their mid-thirties with Ivy League PhDs and faculty positions at schools in the Mid-Atlantic.

Tell that to your heart. It’s never matured past fifteen.

***

This particular story starts a few minutes before the beginning of Campus Confidential, and overlaps with it. It’s the first story from Alex’s point of view, so it’s unique.

If you’d like to read the rest of the story, plus the other free prelaunch bonuses, just go to the prelaunch page and hit “Notify me on launch.” This doesn’t lock you into anything, it just means you’ll get notified whenever a new story is posted–and, of course, when the campaign launches, although you are completely free to ignore that information and not back it.

Meanwhile, if you’re in the freeze zone, stay warm, and happy reading!

Sid Stark

Is Dima being followed by dark forces? Sneak peek of Kickstarter bonus story!

This bonus story is already up on the prelaunch updates for the Kickstarter!

I hope you’re having a good pre-holiday run! I wanted to give you a sneak peek of some bonus stories I’ve been working on. These are very short little vignettes that will only be available to prelaunch followers of my Kickstarter for signed copies of the complete Rowena series. As part of it, there will be several Kickstarter-exclusive bonus stories, some as part of the prelaunch, some as part of the actual campaign.

To get the first set of stories, all you have to do is follow the campaign prelaunch! The stories will be shared for free with all followers periodically throughout the prelaunch period. To make it clear: these stories will be completely free and there’s no obligation to back the campaign, just to follow the prelaunch.

Here’s the opening paragraphs of the first little bonus vignette. Eagle-eyed readers will spot references to the first chapter of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita:
It was the kind of hot May evening you got sometimes in Moscow that, if you knew your Russian literature, might make you expect Satan to come up and proffer you a business card covered in strange foreign writing.

The card currently being proffered to Dima did, in fact, have strange foreign writing on it, or at least English. He wasn’t sure yet whether or not it was from Satan.
This story takes place prior to the events of the series itself. It’s a kind of prequel to the prequel, you might say. Again, to get the rest of the story, and other bonus prequel stories, all you  have to do is follow the Kickstarter campaign prelaunch.

Until next time, and happy reading!

Sid Stark